Working 11 hours can up heart attack risk by 67%

London: People who spend more than 11 hours a day at work increase their chances of having a heart attack by 67 percent, a study has found.

A team from University College London looked at more than 7,000 civil servants over a period of 11 years and established how many hours they worked on an average a day.

They also collected information, including the condition of their heart, from medical records and health checks. Over the period, 192 had suffered a heart attack, reports the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

The study found that those who worked more than 11 hours a day were 67 percent more likely to have a heart attack than those who had a `nine to five` job, a newspaper reported.

Mika Kivimäki, who led the study said, “We have shown that working long days is associated with a remarkable increase in the risk of heart disease."

The researchers say their findings could potentially prevent thousands of heart attacks a year as they would help physicians get a better idea of how likely a patient was to have one.

Patients already at high risk - by being obese or smoking, for example - could be encouraged to cut down on their working hours.

Around 2.6 million in Britain alone have heart disease, in which the organ`s blood supply is blocked by the build-up of fatty deposits in the coronary arteries. It claims 101,000 lives every year in the country.